Item B: Whistleblower Protections

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ECC UGENE ITY OUNCIL AIS GENDA TEM UMMARY Work Session: Whistleblower Protections Meeting Date: October 27, 2008 Agenda Item Number: B Department: City Manager’s Office Staff Contact: Mary Walston www.eugene-or.gov Contact Telephone Number: 682-5406 ______________________________________________________________________________ ISSUE STATEMENT This work session is being held as a result of a work session request made by Councilor Bettman in April of 2008, to determine if there is interest to draft an ordinance to place “whistleblower” protections in the Eugene Code, and, if so, what the major features of such an ordinance would be. BACKGROUND In requesting the work session, Councilor Bettman outlined the questions and issues to be addressed: ? What are the whistleblower protections and ordinances in other communities or organizations? ? What are the provisions and processes we would like to implement here? ? How can we encourage an open and transparent organization so that employees are safe to report inefficiencies, risks, and violations? The City Attorney’s Office provided research on the topic and the summary of this research is attached. In brief, there are federal and state (Oregon) whistleblower protections in place at the current time, but very few at the local level; in fact, no city in Oregon has a local whistleblower ordinance. The federal protections are administered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and address a myriad of work place safety issues found in seventeen federal statutes. OSHA is the body with whom a retaliation complaint is filed; in turn OSHA conducts an investigation to determine if there was retaliation. The State of Oregon has implemented a law that protects a public employee if that employee discloses information that the employee feels represents a violation of federal, state or local laws or gross mismanagement of public funds. The Oregon law also includes a provision that makes it unlawful to discourage or prevent the disclosure of such information. The Civil Rights division of the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) has adopted administrative rules to implement this law. While there were no municipalities in Oregon found to have whistleblower protection laws, the City of Seattle is a city in the northwest with a law. The provisions of protection are similar to that of the State of Oregon, but the process is a bit different. In Seattle, the employee is to make the report to an appropriate city official while the Oregon law allows the employee to make the report to any one, and does not require that notice be given to the public employer prior to disclosure. Z:\CMO\2008 Council Agendas\M081027\S081027B.doc